Minimalist menswear may have ceded ground to colour-pop streetwear and retina-scorching designer collections, but wearing red is always something to be carefully considered. You can always opt for toned-down versions like burgundy or even a dusky pink, but at its boldest, red is the exact opposite of a neutral making it very easy to get wrong and find yourself red-faced. Red clothes are statement clothes, whether it’s the flash of a sock or James Dean’s scarlet Harrington jacket. So what does all of that mean for how you wear red? Well, here’s something else that the colour is closely associated with: caution.

Throw in Coca-Cola and Santa Claus, and you have a hue that means a lot of things to a lot of people. It’s the colour of blood, of danger, of lust. It’s communist and Republican at the same time. Going into the red means you’re in debt, but in China, red is associated with good luck and prosperity. And sportsmen who play in red have been found to win more often and have higher levels of testosterone. Studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported that women were more likely to find a man attractive when he was associated with red. The chest-beating alpha male of the colour wheel, associated with power, status and desire. It’s a primary colour, but it’s also the most primal. Not because it’s unattractive (quite the opposite), but because it’s a big colour.

Unless your name is Jared Leto or your favourite team plays in the stuff, chances are you won’t have much claret hanging in your closet.

Whatever you call it, wearing red is something most men go pale over.

Mens red button up